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Dwayne De Rosario and Ashtone Morgan are out. Iain Hume and Mike Klukowski are in.
Coach Stephen Hart on Thursday revealed his 21-man roster for a pair of crucial World Cup qualifying matches later this month, making two changes from the team he used in September.
Hume has replaced De Rosario, who picked up a knee injury in Canada's 2-0 loss to Panama on Sept. 11. The other change -- Klukowski in for Morgan -- was not forced due to injury, but was rather a tactical decision by Hart.
Canada hosts Cuba in Toronto on Oct. 12, and then plays in Honduras four days later.
The loss of De Rosario, Canada's all-time leading scorer with 20 goals in 71 games, is a bit of a blow for a Canadian side that has scored two goals in four matches during the current qualifying round. Expected to give the team an offensive spark, Hume was selected ahead of 19-year-old striker Lucas Cavallini as a replacement for De Rosario based on his 10 years of national team experience.
It was a similar rationale Hart used in making the lone defensive change to his roster, even though Morgan is a regular starter for Toronto FC and Klukowski has barely featured for APOEL since joining the Cypriot club this summer.
Klukowski has 36 caps since making his national team debut in 2003, while fellow defender Morgan has made only two appearances for Canada.
"I just thought that the experience going into two games like this would serve us well. That was the thought behind it," Hart told reporters during a conference call.
The Reds currently sit third in Group C with seven points. Panama is first (nine points), followed by Honduras (seven). Only the top two nations move on to "The Hex," the final round of the CONCACAF qualifiers where the best three countries in the six-team, round-robin group qualify for the World Cup.
Despite their recent goal-scoring struggles, Canada still controls its destiny. But Hart concedes that they need goals now more than ever and to overcome its longstanding offensive issues.
"We have not been prolific in scoring goals in the last two or three years, so that was not a big secret coming in -- even though I did think we would have done better in front of goal. After looking at all the games over and over, it's not for a lack of creating chances," he said.
Scoring will be a challenge without De Rosario and attacking midfielder Josh Simpson, who is recovering after breaking his leg. With two key players missing, Hart stressed the importance of others needing to step up.
"We've played this campaign without Josh. Now we have to go into (these games) without Dwayne. You not only lose potential goal-scoring but the threat of attack with those players out," Hart stated.
"It's a team thing and players are going to have to pick up the goal scoring. I don't really care where it comes from, but we're going to have to pick up the slack from missing those players and do our best."
After the Cuba contest, Canada travels to Honduras for a game that it will more than likely have to take points from in order to advance to the next round. With that in mind, Canada needs to earn a win over Cuba to have a realistic shot at the Hex.
Hart admitted that Canada needs four points from these two matches to move on to the next round. Even though Cuba has already been eliminated from contention on the back of four consecutive losses, Hart believes the Cuban team is better than its record indicates.
"Before the campaign even started I mentioned that Cuba plays much different (on the road) than they do at home," Hart stated. "They played two exceptional games away from home (vs. Panama and Honduras) and should have got a result in both games. They were very impressive, organized, very quick on the counterattack. … They're not going to lie down for anybody."
Still, the Honduras game looms large on the horizon, and more than likely will decide Canada's fate. But Hart has kept his players focused on the Cuba contest.
"To be fair it's you guys (the media) focusing on Honduras. My discussions with the squad right after the Panama game was about Cuba and it will continue to be that. It's a very dangerous thing to (look ahead to) a game before it arrives," Hart warned.
Canada has not advanced to the Hex since 1998, and even then it finished dead last.
CANADA'S ROSTER
Goalkeeper- Lars Hirschfeld (Valerenga Fotball/Norway)
Goalkeeper- Kenny Stamatopoulos (AIK Fotbol/Sweden)
Goalkeeper- Milan Borjan (Sivasspor/Turkey)
Defender - Ante Jazic (Chivas USA/MLS)
Defender - Kevin McKenna (FC Koln/Germany)
Defender - Andre Hainault (Houston Dynamo/MLS)
Defender - Marcel de Jong (FC Augsburg/Germany)
Defender - Dejan Jakovic (D.C. United/MLS)
Defender - Mike Klukowski (APOEL/Cyprus)
Defender - David Edgar (Burnley FC/England)
Midfielder - Nik Ledgerwood (Hammarby Fotboll/Sweden)
Midfielder - Julian de Guzman (FC Dallas/MLS)
Midfielder - Terry Dunfield (Toronto FC/MLS)
Midfielder- Will Johnson (Real Salt Lake/MLS)
Midfielder- Atiba Hutchinson (PSV Eindhoven/Netherlands)
Midfielder - Patrice Bernier (Montreal Impact/MLS)
Midfielder- Pedro Pacheco (CD Santa Clara/Portugal)
Forward - Tosaint Ricketts (Politehnica Timisoara/Romania)
Forward - Simeon Jackson (Norwich City/England)
Forward - Iain Hume (Doncaster Rovers/England)
Forward - Olivier Occean (Eintracht Frankfurt/Germany)
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